Cranberry Dal ~ Cranberry Pappu

Cranberry dal is a tart and delicious side dish for rice and Indian flatbreads.

Easy Dinner Dishes

Wish you all a happy new year! First post of the new year is for blogging marathon (BM) and the theme for this week is easy dinner dishes. Quick and easy dinner recipes come in handy on busy weeknights and specially on hectic days. This week I have some delicious dinner recipes and all three recipes are side dishes served with a main dish.

When I signed up for this month’s BM, I held back on some recipes which I initially planned for last month’s side dishes theme. I am glad I did as I could not cook anything since my last recipe post.

What is Cranberry Dal

Cranberry dal is an easy recipe prepared just like any other dal. Cook dal, add cranberries to dal, cook until berries are soft and temper it. Hot Cranberry dal is a great side dish for any Indian flatbread and rice. Cranberry dal is part of the thali I posted last month. I made the dal with leftover cranberries from cranberry Christmas cake.

Which Lentils to use?

Indian dal is prepared with variety of lentils. I used toor dal but moong, masoor and chana dal will work as well. I usually use toor or moong for dals and these are my preferred lentils.

Fresh or Frozen Cranberries

Fresh cranberries work well and though I have not used frozen berries, those should work as well.

Cook dal in a pressure cooker or in Instant Pot. In pressure cooker, cook for 7 hisses or whistles and then 5 minutes on low. In IP, 8 minutes on manual/pressure cook mode and natural pressure release.

This batch of toor dal took longer to cook, hence cook toor dal as you normally do.

Once pressure subsides, add cranberries, water to cooked dal and cook for 5-10 minutes or until berries are soft.

Tempering

Heat oil in a saucepan, add mustard seeds, cumin and curry leaves.

When seeds pop, add onions, green chilies and saute until onions are soft.

Add garlic and let roast for few seconds.

Throw in salt, chili powder and turmeric. Mix well.

Pour the tempering over cooked dal, cover and let boil for few minutes.

Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Garnish with cilantro and serve.

Recipe Notes

Quantity of berries depends on how tart the berries are.

For a variation use moong dal.

One can cook cranberries along with toor dal. I prefer adding berries after cooking the dal to retain the shape of the berries.

Happy New Year Usha. First the pics are simply awesome. Cranberry in dal is a completely different idea. I tasted fresh cranberries first time this season, and it has a very tangy yet sweet taste. It might have imparted an awesome flavour to this dal.